Giant catfish have been blamed for eaten several people in recent years, so eyewitnesses claim, with similar stories of people being seen to be dragged under by a large fish described as looking like an ‘elongated pig’.

Wait a minute. How could the humble, cute and cuddly catfish ever become a man-eating predator? Here’s how:

Giant catfish have developed an insatiable taste for man-flesh and have begun sniffing it out.

The Great Kali River, named after the Indian goddess of death (remember Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom anyone?), is hugely popular location for cremating the dead. It’s a Hindu thing. The smoldering funeral pyres eventually sink (or get pushed) into the river, where the corpses become tasty morsels for the local catfish. After years of nibbling on an abundance of Indian-fried human, the catfish have developed an insatiable taste for man-flesh and have begun sniffing it out.

The story gets creepier. In 2008 a British biologist caught one of these monsters by luring it in with (you guessed it) a fake funeral pyre. The specimen in question was a 6 foot, 150+ pound Goonch catfish (commonly known as the Giant Devil Catfish). The Goonch is big, but never that big and studies conclude that it is the human flesh that is causing the fish to increase significantly in size.

So, if you ever happen to be strolling along a serene river bank in North India, and you feel like wading in to cool your feet… don’t. There could be a monster lurking beneath with a hankering for human thigh.